Home Pro Audio Asylum

Pro studio recording equipment and music production/industry.

Re: older boards

You are in an FANTASTIC position if you are willing to look at used mixers. The home studio world used to be almost exclusively based around 8 track recorders, so there were many good quality 8 buss boards sold in the 70's, 80's and early 90's. I'm ignoring the low end here and will only discuss the better quality consoles. Because of the almost total abandonment of the analog 8 track studio by the home studio crowd, there are huge quantities of good quality 8 buss boards available for very little cash. The boards that I would suggest you consider all sold for between $3K and $7K or $8K; that was a LOT of money back then, so you are getting construction quality that is not available today except from a few "boutique" manufacturers.
I was in your position a couple of years ago and I found a Trident VFM 16 x 8 console. Trident was one of the top handful of pro quality consoles and even their bottom-of-the-line VFM model is constructed far better than anything Mackie has ever produced. Each channel strip is constructed on its own frame; the board consists of 26 of these modules. Each module is able to be removed and serviced without affecting the rest of the console. For anyone considering a used console, modular construction is even more important than if you were purchasing a new board. An old board is going to need, at a minimum, some basic maintenance and many good techs won't even work on non-modular boards - its just too much work to get inside the console.
Because of the rush to digital, you will have the opportunity to consider boards that would have been far too expensive a few years ago. My top recommendations would include: Soundcraft Delta, Soundcraft 600, TAC Scorpion, TAC Bullet and even the smallest MCI 400 series and Neotek Series 2 desks. (among many others) The 16x8 format was considered obsolete by the pros (too small) many years ago, but it was often the smallest size offered by many $10K to $20K consoles. Those little desks are now selling for absurdly low prices, considering their quality and remaining utility. If you are still interested in looking at used 8 buss consoles, feel free to email me off the forum. I spent a LOT of time researching this issue before I bought my little Trident (another VFM just sold for around $600 on ebay a few weeks ago!) and I'd be glad to answer any questions or make more suggestions. Good luck.

steve

lex125@pacbell.net
digital? I'm still not sure about transistors....


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